Reviews by Slaughtz

66

Defiance defies the laws of PC shooter game development

The game is fun and Borderlands-esque. A quote from a friend of mine was "brainless shooter." Indeed, that's what it is. I am being particularly harsh on this review because of the lack of care put into the game by developers.

Features oft requested and with little reason not to be implemented do not make it into the game. They'll take any excuse to be lazy, it seems. Fixes upon fixes are half-assed, as only half of what is promised in the patch notes gets fixed. The nail in the coffin for this game was the lack of essential PC game shooter options (namely the ability to set your FOV.)

If you are going to start in this game, make sure to maximize your inventory slots in the beginning because if you're anything like me, you'll get frustrated being forced to throw items away that you have no idea as to their long-term value due to being new. My suggestion: keep what you're going to use and anything with purple rarity or above, then toss the rest.

The good? Well it's a mindless shooter and it does that pretty good. You go around shooting bugs and people and as a result you get loot. There's a variety of weapons you can use, though some are just repeats (such as: sawed-off shotgun, pump shotgun, combat shotgun). You get your "mount" (vehicle) very early in the game so you don't have to run everywhere.

The game is fun - the game designer did a good job; but the developers don't care. Just the lack of an FOV option in a shooter genre game on PC is enough to demonstrate this.

76

Could have been much more

When they developed this game it seemed like they couldn't decide whether or not they wanted to make a good single player/co-op experience or an actually competitive death-match game with good gun mechanics. The game design remains true to the original, Counter-Strike 1.6, but the artwork and gun-play held it back. You'll notice upon playing that the M4 Carbine looks a lot more cartoony and so do the models of the players - it is as if they were afraid of sharp edges in the artwork department. It felt like you were shooting a nerf gun half the time. However, they did implement fun new mechanics that weren't previously seen - and interesting new maps as well. This is more like an expansion and what seemed like a test of what they could get away with. If you want to see Counter-Strike with liberties taken in the design process - or you'd like a pleasant single player experience in the same universe, this is the game for you.

98

Excellent FPS in its day! However, today you could do better...

For its day and age, this was the epitome of good, solid FPS mechanics. No one could justly say that this game, referred to as CS 1.6, was a "bad game." Not only did this set the standard for modern shooters, it has an immense amount of game-modes within that make it interesting for any kind of person to play. Today, I would suggest this game only if you have an outdated computer, though! I would suggest either CS:GO or Counter-Strike:Source over this. Those games are much more active than CS 1.6 and the mechanics aren't too different!

Modern day games ignored and excluded from comparison, there would be no question in my mind that you MUST purchase this game and try it if you're a gamer of any kind.

88

Your first time with an online FF series?

Mine too. Today, I'm unsubscribed only because I cannot afford it. When I first started playing this game, I was disappointed that it didn't feel like a typical FF game. Over time, though, it grows on you - and you start to realize how awesome the game actually is.

Good things:
1) You get a mount relatively early compared to other MMOs. Running only out-stays it's welcome for a couple of hours. In WoW, it was more like a couple days or weeks, even.
2) Questing is fun, has intriguing enough stories, characters and lore to them. Over all, the experience of questing could only be improved by adding voice acting.
3) Music is above-average. It keeps you immersed, and that's about as much as I could ask for.
4) You can play this with a controller. The only MMO I know of which you can do this with.

Negatives:
1) Feels a little grindy, just like any MMO.
2) Grouping with people can sometimes be more trouble than it's worth. I really would prefer if they made grouping and playing with each other a purely positive experience.
3) Sometimes you're playing with people on a different platform in dungeons so they don't interact much at all with the group. Also it has the same problem as every MMO when it comes to dungeons with having to wait a while.

My experience with this game is that it would be an average single-player game by itself. That's actually quite a compliment for an MMO. If you enjoy RPGs and don't mind waiting a bit for other people (which I believe you're required to group with in order to progress) then I really suggest this game. I would get back into it if I could afford it. It's even being continually updated to have more interesting features as time goes on - finally a company not putting the immense amount of cash ($15 per month) to waste!

Note my 88 rating: I dislike the shallowing effect of MMOs in general, so that has put points counting against it! Just so you know my bias.

94

Do you want to feel like a viking?

Perhaps even a stealthy rogue character as well? Or perhaps you want to go home and become a family man. All three of these options and more are available to you in this game. Hearthfire expands the game so you may build your own house. Dawnfire adds vampires. Dragonborn makes you feel like you aren't all that special - but you're still bad-ass. My own experience with the game was positive over all. So what would people want to know before they purchase this immensely popular game?
There are some possible issues:
1) This game doesn't take advantage of the latest processor hardware. It's probably best you play with an Intel or a CPU optimized for 2-4 cores.
2) Some builds have been reported to have a visual artifact called Z-Fighting. There are some work arounds, though.
The postives:
1) The issues above really aren't that big of a deal! Without any modifications you can run this fine on an average computer with decent quality.
2) Immensely large modding community which Bethesda's franchises are famous for having on the PC.
3) You get to play like a viking.
4) This is an immensely open RPG! You are lead linearly for the first 10-20 minutes, and then it is completely open. This is a negative for some. Do not buy if you do not like open world RPGs!
5) There is plenty of content to fill that open world, including random events.
6) Beautifully crafted and designed world, scattered with small trinkets that will satisfy any completionist.

Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game and I wasn't disappointed. It really does live up to the hype it had upon its release.

A word of warning, though - you may actually feel like a bad-ass while playing this game.